The AABS Australasian section's 16th conference was held at the University of Melbourne on September 29. The conference featured 13 presenters on topics ranging from language policy in Estonia to diaspora identities in Australia to the Teutonic order in an age of transition.
Australasian section president, Delaney Skerrett addressed the question of whether an association that advances Baltic Studies is still relevant. "Yes, we are still relevant. Although we are no longer struggling to free ourselves from the Soviet Union and the post-communist transition is for all intents and purposes over, the transformation is not....The transition, Prof Marju Lauristin said, was a boat ride down the river. You get in and you know where you are going. And you know when you have reached the end. The transformation is a little more involved, however. You take the boat out into the ocean, and no one is really sure where the end is or when we might reach it. And that is why we are still relevant. Years on, although we are members of NATO and the EU, in Estonia's case the Eurozone, and hosts of the European Capital of Culture, we are still grappling with issues of great importance and great relevance."
Abstracts from the Australasian conference are available in the conference program AABS 16th Australasian Conference program.pdf
Read Delaney Skerrett's conference address All quiet on the Baltic front.pdf
Lively discussion at the Australasian Conference; photo by Gunars Nagels.
On 29 September, the 16th conference of the Australasian Chapter at AABS will take place at the University of Melbourne. Fifteen presenters will address the theme of Baltic States, Multiculturalism and Diversity through the lenses of history and politics, language and linguistics, diaspora studies and religion. The conference will feature a book presentation by Luda Popenhagen.
You can download a conference info sheet australasia-2012-conference-info.pdf and a registration form australasia-2012conf-registration.doc. For further information, please contact Delaney Skerrett at d.skerrett@uq.edu.au.
AABS gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship of the School of Languages and Linguistics of the University of Melbourne for the Australasian Conference.
The 2012 AABS Conference "The Global Baltics" brought together 209 participants from 17 countries in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. The 23rd AABS conference was held in Chicago on April 26-28. This group of scholars from around the globe was joined by over 100 local attendees for panel presentations, keynotes and discussions on the Baltic past and future. The conference featured an opening day panel with Ambassadors to the United States Marina Kaljurand (Estonia), Žygimantas Pavilionis (Lithuania) and Andrejs Pildegovičs (Latvia), along with Benjamin Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting to the President of the USA, and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Senior Director for European Affairs, National Security Council, The White House.
Other featured speakers included Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis, Member of Latvia's Parliament, who spoke on the Latvian economy, and Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois, who spoke on the U.S.-Baltic relationship. In addition to looking ahead to the next 20 years, keynote speaker: Pietro U. Dini, Linguist and translator, Università di Pisa provided a look back at the Baltic languages and nations in Renaissance Europe. Fifty-six panels addressed various aspects of the history, literature, culture, economy, politics and society of the Baltic region. The conference also included a session with Baltic writers and two evening musical performances. The conference was capped off with a banquet in Chicago's Greek Town and an entertaining performance by Solo performance by author, director and actor, Kęstutis Nakas, of his play "One Lithuanian Guy."
Incoming AABS President Ain Haas shares his vision of the future of Baltic Studies.
The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) and the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies (SASS) will once again hold a joint conference on March 13-15, 2014. The conference will be hosted by the European Studies Council at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. For more information about the conference, please contact Bradley Woodworth.
AABS invites you to participate in our 23rd conference -- The Global Baltics: The Next Twenty Years -- which will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago on April 26-28, 2012.
Program, registration, accommodation and conference site information can be found on the 2012 AABS Conference website. You can download the conference program and maps of the conference venues.
Visit the 2012 AABS Conference Abstracts website to read about all the panel presentations.
Confirmed Conference Plenary Session Speakers:
* Ambassadors to the United States, Marina Kaljurand (Estonia), Žygimantas Pavilionis (Lithuania) and Andrejs Pildegovičs (Latvia) have accepted the invitation to participate in a roundtable plenary session discussion about globalization and the Baltic countries in the next 20 years.
* Dr. Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis, an economist and a member of Latvia's Parliament, will address the topic of the current economic crisis in the Baltic countries.
* Linguist and translator, Università di Pisa professor, Dr. Pietro U. Dini, will discuss how Renaissance Europe looked at Baltic languages and the Baltic peoples (his most recent book in Italian is entitled ,,Aliletoescvr: linguistica baltica delle origini", published in Livorno by Books & Co.
Join in now! The 2012 AABS conference is on Facebook.
CALL FOR PAPERS: Turning Points in Baltic and Central East European Food History -
Knowledge, Consumption, and Production in Changing Environments
Tallinn, Estonia, 29-31 August 2012
The deadline for applications is April 15, 2012.
Together with global changes (climate change, colonialism, industrialisation etc.), the conference will focus in particular on the specific regional characteristics of the Baltic countries and Central East Europe. This is all the more necessary since, despite the complex inter-ethnic composition, class structures and trade relations in the Baltic area and Poland, there have only been a few comparative studies made of the historical and trans-cultural food culture of the region which draw upon the latest research in this field. The main focus of this international and interdisciplinary conference will be upon the continuities and discontinuities in Baltic food history and in contemporary Baltic food studies.
This conference constitutes the first in a small series of conferences on environmental history which are being organised in cooperation with the Herder Institute in Marburg and the Institute of History, Tallinn University. The aim of this series is, from a comparative perspective, to reach an appraisal of the state of current research on the environmental history of the Baltic region and Central Eastern Europe, and to draw impulses from this for further research. We therefore also welcome topics whose focus lies beyond the actual region itself, but which can still offer an important methodological contribution.
We will invite up to 15 academics to the conference. Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes in length. Young academics are encouraged to present their research projects in poster presentations of around 10 minutes in length.
The language of the conference will be English, but presentations may also be made in German. The organisers will cover the costs of accommodation in Tallinn and if necessary a proportional takeover of the travel costs after (please contact the rganizers before).
Please send your abstracts (max. 500 words) to:
Heidi Hein-Kircher (heidi.hein-kircher@herder-institut.de) and Ulrike
Plath (ulrike@utkk.ee). The deadline for applications is April 15, 2012.
The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies invites submissions for the upcoming 16th semi-annual conference on Baltic Studies in Australasia. The conference will be held on 29 September 2012. We welcome papers related to the Baltic region, its countries, and its populations both within those countries and their diasporas.
Contributions are encouraged from disciplines including, but not limited to, the following: anthropology, architecture, business, communication and media, cultural studies, demography, economics, education, environment, ethnic relations, film studies, fine arts, gender studies, geography, history, international relations, law, linguistics, literature, memory, political science, psychology, public health, religion, sociology, and advancing Baltic studies. Interdisciplinary and comparative work is particularly welcome.
Please send proposals (250 words) by 1 May to Delaney Skerrett, Chapter President and Conference Convenor at d.skerrett@uq.edu.au
AABS gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship of the School of Languages and Linguistics of the University of Melbourne.
AABS invites you to participate in our 23rd conference -- "The Global Baltics: The Next Twenty Years" -- which will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago on April 26-28, 2012.
Paper and Panel Proposals Deadline: HAS BEEN EXTENDED -- PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (10/11/11)
Please see the call for papers for detailed information on submitting paper and panel proposals:
CFP-2012-AABS-Chicago-updated.pdf
Accommodations: Information on conference accommodations is now available:
AABS-2012-accomodations-FINAL.pdf
Keep up-to-date with conference plans by joining the 2012 AABS Conference group on Facebook.
The Conference website is coming soon!
For further information, contact the conference organizing committee at aabsconfinfochicago@gmail.com.
Sődertőn University in Stockholm hosted the 2011 Baltic Studies in Europe Conference on June 12-15. The 230 participants came from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, UK, USA, and even two participants from Japan. In addition to panel presentations, the conference featured three key note speakers. Bengt Jacobsson, Sődertőn University, opened the conference with a talk on "Changes in Governance: Europeanization and the Baltic States." Valdis Muktupavels, University of Latvia, presented case studies of Latvian musical instruments to discuss local, regional and continental components of national musical culture. Tiina Kirss, Tallinn University, addressed post-Soviet "memory work" in her talk "Writing Baltic Lives: Continuities and Caesuras."
A highlight of the conference was a concert by the Hans Antehads Quartet, which performed jazz arrangements of traditional and contemporary Latvian songs. The concert, held at the historical Konserthuset, was followed by a reception hosted by the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian embassies in Sweden. On Sunday evening, the Estonian House hosted a reception with a performance by The Lavettes, a 1960s music Stockholm band comprised primarily of doctoral students. Despite a heavy rain that forced a move inside from the Blåporten restaurant's courtyard, the conference dinner was an opportunity to enjoy Swedish food and conversation with colleagues.
The 2013 Baltic Studies Conference in Europe will be held in Tallinn, Estonia.
The 23rd AABS Conference -- The Global Baltics: The Next Twenty Years -- will be held in Chicago, 26-28 April 2012. Deadline for proposals: October 1, 2011.
Keep up-to-date with conference plans by joining the 2012 AABS Conference group on Facebook.
AABS welcomes papers, panels, and roundtable presentations in fields related to the Baltic region, its countries, and populations within those countries, including minorities. Contributions are encouraged from disciplines including, but not limited to, the following: anthropology, architecture, business, communication and media, cultural studies, demography, economics, education, environment, ethnic relations, film studies, fine arts, gender studies, geography, history, international relations, law, linguistics, literature, memory, political science, psychology, public health, religion, sociology, and advancing Baltic studies. Interdisciplinary and comparative work is welcome.
Graduate students, both Master and Ph.D., are encouraged to submit proposal.
Paper and panel proposals must include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a one- to two-page curriculum vitae. These materials should be sent to the appropriate divisional chair. For additional information, please download the call for papers. 1st Call for Papers AABS CHICAGO April 26-28 2012.pdf
- 2012 - Chicago, Illinois
- 2010 - Seattle, Washington
- 2008 - Bloomington, Indiana
- 2006 - George Washington University
- 2004 - University of Toronto
- 2002 - John Hopkins University
- 2000 - Georgetown University
- 1998 - Indiana University-Bloomington
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- 1978 - University of Toronto
- 1976 - Columbia University
- 1974 - University of Illinois-Chicago
- 1972 - University of Toronto
- 1970 - San Jose State College
- 1968 - University of Maryland
